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Parisian Potatoes

Baked potato balls tossed in clarified butter and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,855 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Parisian Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Peel the potatoes and scoop out little round balls using a vegetable cutter.

  2. Blanch the potato balls in salted water, bringing it to a boil quickly to prevent them from breaking.

  3. Drain the potato balls.

Sauté and bake

  1. Heat clarified butter in a sauté pan.

  2. Add the potato balls to the hot butter and toss for a few minutes.

  3. Transfer the pan to a 400°F (200°C) oven and bake for 10 minutes until crisp and golden.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the potato balls on a cloth or paper.

  2. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and salt.

  3. Serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Form the main body of the dish, cooking into a soft interior under a crisp exterior.
Clarified butter
Carries heat into the potato balls and promotes golden browning and crispness.

The step that matters

Bringing the blanching water to a boil quickly. Starting the potato balls in water that heats fast helps the outer layer set so they hold their shape instead of breaking apart.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits less well
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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